In complex integrated circuits, diodes and rectifiers are usually realized as transistors which are wired as diodes. For example, the gate electrode of a field effect transistor may be short-circuited with the source electrode. Realizing diodes as transistors formed in a semiconductor substrate may complicate the application of the diodes because the charge carriers in impurity regions associated to the diodes may interact with neighboring elements or regions in the carrier substrate. Furthermore, such diodes include parasitic elements, for example bipolar junction transistors and further diodes, which influence the device parameters of these diodes making circuit design more difficult.